‘Lone Nagaland MP to vote against UPA’

Thiruvananthapuram, July 12 (IANS) Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio Saturday said the lone Lok Sabha member from his state would vote against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the July 22 trust vote in parliament. “We do not know much details of the proposed civilian nuclear deal with the US. But we have decided that the Lok Sabha member from Nagaland will vote against the Manmohan Singh government,” Rio told reporters here.

W. Wangyuh belongs to the Nagaland People’s Front.

Rio the first chief minister from Nagaland to visit Kerala and was the guest of honour at the inauguration of the longest broadband terrestrial education grid between the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Managament here and Nagaland University.

He said that the funds allocated for the northeastern states were a mere pittance.

“For 10 states, the total allocation is a mere Rs.600 crores (Rs.6 billion). This is very small and in my state we don’t have a single regional or national educational institution. Funds are required for development of infrastructure and we wish that it happens soon,” Rio added.